Windows 7: To all --PLEASE Back up your Music Libraries

Hi all
I hope you all regularly backup your music libraries.

I have around 500GB of FLAC files (approx 2100 CD equivalents) and am still using Acronis for this as it will write to spanned media (when the backup device is full it will ask for another one - I've got two external USB WD passport disks assigned for this).

I'm really wary of things like "ICHOONES" as these sort of systems have their own "propietary" format and often have DRM embedded which makes using generic backup programs like Acronis a problem - another plus for keeping your music library in a LOSSLESS format -- you can always create MP3 files from FLAC if you need to).

Judging by the horror stories I read on these forums of people NOT backing up their computers and having to re-install Windows - I'd imagine you could get into problems as well if you don't backup your music too. -- I certainly don't want to rip over 2,000 CD's again -- even if I could find them all.


So --I'd suggest a New years resolution for 2010 -- REGULARLY BACKUP YOUR MUSIC (data and OS as well BTW).

Disks do get broken / damaged. Accidents happen -- coffee / beer etc can get spilt and damage an external drive. You could get burgled, flooded etc etc.

Often lost music CANNOT be replaced unlike Windows 7.

Cheers
jimbo

... ... ... I have kept all my music libraries for 5 years in a separate partition of the same HDD, never had any issues whatsoever. Then when I changed HDDs, I simply backed up the libraries to DVDs, copied them to the new HDD and threw away the DVDs as I won't ever need them. Unless you are afraid of a hard disk failure, wasting time and money to back up anything is useless with today's huge HDDs. And even if it fails, you can always get the data back...

Wise advice indeed. Now that I have the space, I am ripping all my CD's to FLAC, and I agree that it would suck to have to do it all again, especially given that some of mine are scratched and old which makes EAC take a long time on them.
+rep for the sound advice(pardon the pun!)

With todays huge hdd's is EXACTLY WHY you SHOULD backup stuff -- copying to another drive is quick easy and cheap.

And without backup WHERE do you get the data back again from -- most music services have a time limit on downloads - and some songs you got years ago might not be available any more or you can't remember where you got them from.

I certainly wouldn't want to re-download or re-rip 500 GB or more of music.

I'd bet you wouldn't like it if your bank didn't have backup -- or said --sorry we have to recover our data -- come back again in 3 days when you can get your money.

Also you could get robbed, or your home could get flooded / damaged by fire etc etc.

Believe me any mechanical device can and WILL fail eventually.

Those that don't think so are living in cloud cuckoo land.

I just hope you never run a business -- if you don't have backup of accounts / customer orders/ invoices etc etc you'll never survive even the FIRST tax audit.

In most countries --including yours I believe - commercial data must be retained for between 7 to 10 years so you will need to have it archived somewhere - and woe betide you if the archive gets lost -- serious jail time BTW in most countries.
Cheers

jimbo

Why would the advice on backing up "music libraries" differ from the advice for backing up personal data generally?

I treat music files just as I treat Word docs, Excel docs, jpegs, and anything else I value. They are all treated equally and are backed up by multiple methods. Who would backup one but not the other and for what reason? That's a rhetorical question.

I don't let any music related application (Winamp, iTunes, whatever) have any control whatsoever over my songs.

I only have 2.96 GB's of music, all ripped in 128 MP3's. I'm not worried about my music, honestly.